community art

The final sculpture on the Sefton Coastal Path Sculpture Trail was installed at Hightown just before Christmas.

This sculpture forms a trackway that runs along the new cycle path leading from Hightown to Crosby beach.

Over 20 feet of wood has been installed which contain artwork relating to the ancient man-made trackway that has been discovered in the area.

For the artwork we visited Cambridge Children’s Centre and Brunswick Youth Club and delivered workshops based on metal embossing. The images are all of food that our ancestors would have eaten in the area.

Going to the location we lay out the trackway

making some on site adjustments

and then a little bit of digging and turf removal

before lying them down and securing them in place.

Huge thanks to Fiona, John and Rachel, to all at the Cambridge Children’s Centre and the super kids and staff at the Brunny. And as always to Phill and Joe – Adam, you were missed – such a super installation team.

How wonderful to see some people and their furry friends enjoying the Lizard bench down Fisherman’s Path – we thought we would share :

Sheila’s lovely furry faces Bertie and Elliot

Geoff and Hannah with the incredible Nico

Jayne with her perfect little Jack Russels, Florrie and Mavis

Cheryl with the friendliest dogs ever – Winston and Monty

John with beautiful Luna.

Thanks so much for sharing these pictures! We love to see pictures of families and pets enjoying the sculptures so if you go visiting please do take a picture and share it with us via our facebook page: www.facebook.com/seftoncoastsculpturetrail2015

The Great Day has arrived for installing the Lizard Bench. We arrived early at Bridge Inn Community Farm to give the Lizard Bench a final buffing, then Phill and Adam guided it out to the van ready for the journey to the new home.

The Bench was carefully escorted out of the building

and onto Phill’s van with a hoist.

A sending off committee arrived with Thank You cards and after a quick photo opportunity ……

we were off to the Natural England site, where the Lizards emerged….

and were carefully loaded onto the trailer….

We all piled in the Land Rover and set off for the site on the Fisherman’s Path….

Sarah cleared the site……

while the men watched….

and the Lizards were loaded and lifted for the last time.

The Bench was finally set on its feet and settled into its new surroundings.

We had a very creative day with Natural Alternatives who are an essential and hard working voluntary part of the wider team that keeps the Sefton Coastal Path going and in good repair.

We used the Cyanotype process for the Bird Bench – a perfect link in colour and images for this sculpture. This is an alternative photographic process invented by John Hershcel in 1842 and used in the 19C to record plant specimens. The group explored the process using feathers and images of birds to celebrate Marshside RSPB where the Coastal Path starts.

Two of the group demonstrating the colour of the paper to start with – the Bockingford watercolour paper has been painted with a light sensitive solution that is green until it is exposed to ultra violet light.

When the paper is rinsed in tap water, the colour changes to a beautiful deep blue, leaving behind a perfect image of whatever was placed on the green sheet – in this case feathers.

The images created celebrates some of the species of birds that can be seen at Marshside RSPB: avocets; curlew; pink footed geese; skylarks among others. The group also placed some plants and leaves around the images, making some beautiful scenes.

The group worked hard all day and we had good fun with the process with lovely pieces to put in the Bench – thank you Natural Alternatives!!

With such a good response and interest in the Lizard Bench, we thought you might be interested to see the Lizards’ journey and all the preparation that went in to creating the Lizard Bench, from concept and design, to Phill and team working on the wood, the mosaic work and the installation.

The sand lizard is an endangered species that lives along Sefton Coast. They have incredible hearing and are masters of disguise, blending into the marram grass perfectly making it unlikely for you to spot one on your rambles. In mating season the male turns the most amazing bright green – a stunning display that bewitches the females. This is what inspired us to create the colourful lizards on our bench.

We selected a log big enough which Phill then cut to size using his saw mill and his chain saw.

… with a little help from us!

Thinking about the three main visible sides of the bench we developed a lizard design which we then drew the on to the wood. Phill then used his router to cut out the shapes freehand.

and the Lizards emerged…

Sanding down the wood till it felt wonderfully smooth ready for the mosaic workshop.

We are thrilled to be working with Bridge Inn Community Farm in Formby on this sculpture. This is a wonderfully inspiring place where the clients run a farm with sheep and pigs, lots of vegetables and have a brilliant art programme where they create wonderful art. We has super support and enthusiasm from John, Karl and the rest of the team, who were thrilled to be part of this project.

We started them off with a workshop session, then left the bench with them so they had time to finish gluing mosaic tiles into all four of the lizards.

They all worked incredibly hard, coming up with some great ideas of pattern and shapes, using contrasting colours and finding the tiles which fit just right.

Meanwhile, we met the Natural England Team who took us off in their Land Rover to find a suitable site along the Fisherman’s Path Trail.

We found a great site. It offers a chance to sit and relax, enjoying the beautiful surroundings. And who knows, the lizards may see the wood as a lovely warm place to bask when nobody is around.

Finally we went back to Bridge Inn Community Farm to complete the grouting …

We then sanded back the wood and applied a fungicide, then the final touch of linseed oil and all was ready for the installation.